Tátsicki-Stomíck, Piegan Blackfeet Chief

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Artist

Karl Bodmer

Birth and death dates

1809 - 1893

Artist Nationality

Swiss

Title

Tátsicki-Stomíck, Piegan Blackfoot Chief

Date

August 21, 1833

Dimensions

12 9/16 × 10 1/8 in. (31.9 × 25.7 cm)

Medium

Watercolor and graphite on paper

Institution

Joslyn Art Museum

Credit Line

Gift of the Enron Art Foundation

Accession Number

1986.49.283

Rights (i.e. copyright information)

Joslyn Art Museum

Photographer credit

Photograph © Bruce M. White, 2019

Commentary

Tátsicki-Stomíck ("Middle Bull") was referred to by Maximilian several times as the highest or principal chief of the Piegans. He was a serious, thoughtful man who evidently sought to maintain an amicable trade relationship between his people and the various companies competing for hides and pelts. Tátsicki-Stomíck and the other Piegan chiefs were given many gifts by the American Fur Company to secure their loyalty, including red uniforms and plumed felt hats. Maximilian had little regard for such clothing, which he considered outlandish, and much preferred the Indians in native dress. He particularly admired a shirt of Tátsicki-Stomíck's, made of bighorn sheep hide and richly ornamented with ermine, feathers, and tufts of hair. He lamented that, for this picture, Tátsicki-Stomíck wore a much simpler shirt decorated with only two plain bands of beadwork. In the portrait, which was later reproduced in Tableau 45 of the aquatints, Tátsicki-Stomíck's face is vividly painted with vermillion and a blue mineral pigment, the latter said to have been obtained from the Rocky Mountains and chemically identified by Maximilian as an "earthy peroxide of iron."

References in Journal

August 21, 1833

Labels:

genre, portrait

Approximate Depicted Location:

Fort McKenzie, Montana